Vicar of Dibley may return as woman bishop, hints Dawn French

The Vicar of Dibley could be making a return to our TV screens - as a woman
bishop, Dawn French has revealed

10:16AM BST 20 Oct 2008

She told an audience at Cheltenham Literature Festival that she believes writer Richard Curtis has a new series about her best loved character up his sleeve.

French thinks writer Richard Curtis has a new series up his sleeve.

When the Vicar of Dibley ended with Geraldine's wedding, the plan was that it would all be so final that there could never be any revival, French told an audience of about 1,000 at Cheltenham Town Hall.

But she discovered after the end of series party that Richard Curtis had asked for the Dibley set to be kept in storage and not destroyed.

"Richard agreed to a proper ending. After filming the wedding we had a lovely big party," she said.

"As I was leaving the party the producer came up to me and said 'You do realise that Richard has asked us to store the set?' "So your guess is as good as mine. All I am saying is that Richard has got his eye on the ball.

"There are conversations, obviously, in the Anglican Church about female bishops - so watch this space!" Dawn revealed that when she filmed the famous moment where she falls into a deep puddle it was a cold mid-November day - so the crew used warm water to make it less unpleasant for her.

"But of course that meant there was steam and you could see it so we had to take the warm water out and put the cold back in.

"With scenes like that you just have to pretend you are a kid and think 'I'm going to love this.'

"The problem actually was getting out of the puddle again, I am heavy anyway and with all these clothes on I was drenched and even heavier.

"It was absolutely freezing - but I did have a secret wee! Don't tell anyone."